Strawberries are being lost to non-stop rain in Nova Scotia

Shane Morse stood in the doorway of the barn, looking out dejectedly as more rain fell on the sodden dirt of Kings County and, more specifically, the sodden strawberry fields of Harry Morse farm in Somerset, north of Berwick.

He had hoped there would be pickers in the field that morning, for the weather forecast indicated favorable weather. Instead, another 15 or 20 mm of rain fell, and it just kept falling. He called off pickers until 3pm, hoping to break even when Environment Canada issued thunderstorm warnings that could bring an additional 25-50mm of rain in heavy downpours.

Inside, a cooler that should have had a lot of berries ready for shipment only had a fraction.

Morse had been to a six-acre field earlier that morning and found that 60 percent of the crop had rotted at the plants. That field accounts for about half of the berry crop.

“We’ve always had a half-decent crop, but this year it was a bang,” he said. “It looked really good. We had all kinds of berries, probably one of the best years we could have had.

“But it’s all the way down now. We have lost so much.”

A field should have been picked a week ago, but it won’t stop raining.

The extra water can leave bruises on the fruit if pickers have too much contact with it. So much water can affect their firmness and shelf life. Most farm berries are intended for the commercial market and many retailers or consumers will reject berries if they don’t look perfect.

In May, Morse was irrigating to keep the fields wet and prevent frost when it seemed to become a nighttime threat to the point that he almost pumped a pond dry. Now he needs the water to stop.

Morse says he has enough pickers, but he can’t get them into the fields. He can’t spray against mold and mildew because the rain immediately washes it off.

Picking started on June 12, “and I haven’t picked a dry day yet,” he said. “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

And when it doesn’t rain, it’s still damp and dew wreaks havoc too. The industry has been pushed toward cardboard boxes and flats as wood packaging manufacturers decline and federal regulations require grower information to be printed on the packaging. But that cardboard material just absorbs the moisture and quickly breaks down. At $2 for an eight-content box, it gets expensive.

“(Tuesday) we picked hard and tried to get as many (berries) off as possible,” Morse said.

Morse and his mother, Janice, continue to hope for the best as they run the operation. All he can do is go ahead and try to get enough of the picked berries for the next rain.

His grandfather would have done that. The farm’s namesake, who passed away in March at the age of 90, worked the land until last year.

“You can’t help it, Harry would say,” Morse said. “You can do what you can do, and that’s all.”